Introducing Eleanor

She is serene and regal yet from that other place...
That place we go to in our imaginations.

Take my hand little one, take my hand and I will show you wonders beyond your most fantastical dreams. I will take those dreams and walk with you as you explore them.

Dance with me little one. Dance with me as we walk among the unicorns and the dew drops on the grass glitter like diamonds.

Sing for me little one. Sing for me with your little girl voice and tell of your hopes and your visions and I shall lay them out before you so you can build a place of miracles. A place of castles and heroes, of safety and of truth, of knights in shining armour who challenge any beast who threatens you.

Rest with me little one. Rest with me and I shall stroke your hair from your troubled face, I shall dress you in garments fit for a princess and hold you close to my perfumed heart. I shall give you jewels as play things and shower you with love and laughter. I shall always be just beyond the now, waiting for you..... I shall never leave you.

Grow old with me little one. Take me with you on your journey through life. When pillowcases can no longer be princess capes, and the dew drops cool your feet and make you shiver instead of dance, we shall talk of other things. We shall talk of expression and interpretation. When the darkness of the world threatens to take you away, I shall hold out my hand and you will remember my perfume, and you will come to me..... and I shall hold you. And we shall speak of other things..... and in your quiet moments where you remember you were once little, you will sing to me again.

Eleanor is that part of me that has been with me the longest. In the loneliness and darkness of a troubled childhood, she was that part that shone light into the corners and chased the monsters away.

She is that part of me that saved my life through believing in my own reality. When this world was too cruel and too lonely for a little girl who had been abandoned and neglected at times, she took me to the realms of imagination, and from there grew an appreciation of things unseen. From Eleanor came that safe place I have found in expression and creating my own world within the world. From Eleanor came the protection to grow, and have the courage to learn and evolve despite tremendous odds.

She has stayed with me through my childhood, my teenage years, and now into my adulthood, and even now I can smell her perfume in my mind, and be reminded that just because the world says unicorns don't exist, doesn't mean I can't dance with them in my mind, and express how that feels in my work.